Fitness Planning

Plan Ahead To Meet Your Fitness Goals

We’re in the latter half of January now, and chances are you’re teetering on the edge of the fitness wagon you jumped on once the December 31st-induced hangover finally abated. It could be you’ve already fallen off.

Here’s how to get back on.

Actually, scratch that. Scratch everything. Chances are you screwed up your plan to begin with, which is why you’re struggling now, so let’s just start from … scratch.

How did you screw up your plan? You didn’t have one. You jumped into fitness like an apocalyptic lemming, pursuing white-knuckle weight loss with a vague idea of “exercise and eat right.” For most people, this involves trying to lose 10 years' worth of weight gain in ten weeks.

In other words, it’s all suffering, no thinking.

So just stop with all that, catch your breath, and begin again. And beginning again involves some planning.

“Advance planning is essential to getting in shape,” says Jim Taylor. “It creates a mindset of commitment and it creates the process. Without those, it’s not going to happen.” Taylor, a San Francisco-based expert in sport psychology who has consulted for elite professional and Olympic athletes, states that most people approach getting in shape without a proper plan, and are hence doomed to fail.

“After six months, half of New Year’s resolutions have gone by the wayside,” Taylor told me. “And after a year only about 10 percent have stuck with it, because there is not a lot of planning behind it.” My friend Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, an obesity researcher in Ottawa, thinks resolutions fail at a much faster rate, saying within a few weeks, most are forgotten.

According to a 2012 study by researchers at the School of Public Health from the University of Minnesota and published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, higher use of strategizing for weight control led to better outcomes for improving diet, exercising, and losing weight. Those who rarely planned exercise, for example, burned half as many calories per week via physical activity as those who were frequent planners.

Convinced yet?

The biggest favor you can do yourself to fulfill your New Year’s fitness resolution is to purge the phrase “New Year’s resolution” from your vocabulary. It’s a toxic mindset that is not in line with the kick-ass-at-life mindset necessary to pursue health and fitness not just for a little while, but from now until the day you dirt nap.

So, yeah, screw this whole resolution nonsense. Instead, follow these steps to pursue fitness with passion and vigor, so that you can not only achieve your goals, but also not relapse.

1. Ditch The Quick-Fix MentalityHumans hate change. It creates stress, and we naturally seek to avoid stress. And so, when you jump into a 180-degree lifestyle change overnight, it creates a lot of stress. Not to mention pain, if you’re a couch potato trying to become a workout warrior inside of a week.

So realize that this will take time, and commit to baby steps instead. The way to move forward is via baby steps. Get a little bit uncomfortable with lifestyle change, and when what was uncomfortable has become comfortable — when it has become a routine that is integrated into your daily life — then it’s time to get a little uncomfortable again.

2. Create A PlanThe first half of this article should make this point a little “Well, duh.” But point No. 1 is point No. 1 because I want you to make a realistic plan that is based on the tortoise approach rather than the hare. The tortoise is the one who wins this race. The hare sprints a short ways, collapses, and says, “Screw it. Too hard. I quit.”

It doesn’t have to be a hyper-detailed plan, but the best advice I can give in this regard is to focus on process (short-term) goals far more than outcome (long-term) goals. Put your emphasis on what you do day after day, week after week, and the motivational tricks and time management it takes to ensure that you live the process of fitness, and the outcome will take care of itself.